She’s Doing It: Katie Couric’s Advice for Making Media Breakthroughs

by Gloria Feldt on May 16th, 2012
in Define Your Own Terms, Leadership, Power Tools, She's Doing It, Tell Your Story and tagged , , , , , , , , ,

At the start of this video interview with Katie Couric, the first female major TV network evening news anchor, Katie politely but pointedly calls out interviewer Katie Corrado for introducing her initially as “the lovely Katie Couric.” Much like her interviewee, Corrado is perky and cute. She appears to be a generation younger than Couric.

That Corrado needed to be called out is cause for concern about what lessons are being transmitted from one generation to another, and how the dominant cultural narratives imprint even an obviously intelligent young media professional.

Fortunately, Katie’s willingness to apply No Excuses Power Tool #9 Tell your story, is the best antidote for those women whose consciousness needs to be raised about the remaining barriers to gender equality.

Corrado then asked a stereotypically leading question about whether women compete or support each other in the cutthroat media business. This was also handled deftly by Couric. “It’s a very competitive world for both men and women,” said Katie, and proceeded to counsel on the benefits of women helping one another up the ladder.

Be sure to check out Couric’s examples in the video of using Power Tool #2Define your own terms.  At a time when, according to her description, there was a desire to “Keep the broads out of broadcasting,” she took the initiative to draft story ideas and present them to producers. Impressed, they not only began to use her story ideas, she found that several of the male anchors took note and began to mentor her and open the door to opportunities that might have otherwise eluded her as a young woman in broadcasting.

Success requires passion for what you do, she counsels, but also hard work.

Corrado looked convinced, and I suspect she learned more than she had anticipated she would in this interview, which was recorded for the New York Women in Communications “Connect With the Women Who Connect the World” feature.

Head to http://www.nywici.org/membership/best-advice to see additional interviews with  media women you’ll know as well as 25-second self-recorded interviews by other members of New York Women in Communications (NYWICI) who wanted to tell their own stories.

You can record your story too and submit it, or else you can record right on the “Best Advice” tab on the organization’s Facebook page. It’s a great organization, one I highly recommend joining if you are working or aspire to work in any aspect of media or public relations.

And stay tuned for Katie’s new talk show set to launch in September. Will she be the new Oprah?

Gloria Feldt

Gloria Feldt is the author of No Excuses: 9 Ways Women Can Change How We Think About Power. Buy the book here. Engage Gloria for a Speech or Workshop. Tweet @GloriaFeldt and connect on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google+ Gloria is the co-founder (with Amy Litzenberger) of Take the Lead, a new initiative to prepare and propel women to leadership parity by 2025. Find them @takeleadwomen and on Facebook.

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Copyright 2010 Gloria Feldt